Biscayan languages. With respect to the first, I beg leave to observe
that no work printed in Spain ever caused so great and so general a
sensation, not so much amongst the Gypsies, that peculiar people, for
whom it was intended, as amongst the Spaniards themselves, who, though
they look upon the Roma with some degree of contempt as a low and
thievish race of outcasts, nevertheless take a strange interest in all
that concerns them, it having been from time immemorial their practice,
more especially of the dissolute young nobility, to cultivate the
acquaintance of the Gitanos as they are popularly called, probably
attracted by the wild wit of the latter and the lascivious dances of the
females. The apparition therefore of the Gospel of Saint Luke at Madrid
in the peculiar jargon of these people was hailed as a strange novelty
and almost as a wonder, and I believe was particularly instrumental in
bruiting the name of the Bible Society far and wide through Spain, and in
creating a feeling far from inimical towards it and its proceedings. I
will here take the liberty to relate an anecdote illustrative of the
estimation in which this little work was held at Madrid. The Committee
are already aware that a seizure was made of many copies of Saint Luke in
the Rommany and Biscayan languages, in the establishment at which they
were exposed for sale, which copies were deposited in the office of the
Civil Governor. Shortly before my departure a royal edict was published,
authorising all the public libraries to provide themselves with copies of
the said works on account of their philological merit; whereupon, on
application being made to the office, it was discovered that the copies
of the Gospel in Basque were safe and forthcoming, whilst every one of
the sequestered copies of the Gitano Gospel had been plundered by hands
unknown. The consequence was that I was myself applied to by then agents
of the public libraries of Valencia and other places, who paid me the
price of the copies which they received, assuring me at the same time
that they were authorised to purchase them at whatever price which might
be demanded.
Respecting the Gospel in Basque I have less to say. It was originally
translated into the dialect of Guipuscoa by Dr. Oteiza, and subsequently
received corrections and alterations from myself. It can scarcely be
said to have been published, it having been prohibited and copies of it
seized on the second day of its appearance. But it is in my power to
state that it is anxiously expected in the Basque provinces, where books
in the aboriginal tongue are both scarce and dear, and that several
applications have been made at San Sebastian and in other towns where
Basque is the predominating language.
I now proceed to the subject of my travels in Spain. Before undertaking
them I was little acquainted with the genius of the Spanish people in
general, having resided almost entirely in Madrid, and I was fully
convinced that it was not from the inhabitants of one city that an
accurate judgment could be formed of a population of nine millions,
thinly scattered over a vast country so divided and intersected by
mountain barriers as is the Peninsula. With this population under all
its various circumstances and under all its various phases, the result of
descent from a variety of foreign nations, I was anxious to make myself
acquainted; for I reflected that he who builds a city on ground which he
has not fully examined will perhaps discover when too late that his
foundation is in a swamp, and that the whole of his labour is momentarily
in danger of being swallowed up. I therefore went forth not so much for
the purpose of distributing the Scriptures as to make myself acquainted
with the prefatory steps requisite to be taken in order to secure my
grand object. Before departing from Madrid I consulted with the many
friends, some of them highly distinguished, which I had the honour to
possess in that capital. Their unanimous advice, whether Catholics or
Protestants, was that for the present I should proceed with the utmost
caution, but without concealing the object of my mission which I
considered to be the simple propagation of the Scripture--that I should
avoid with diligence the giving offence to the prejudices of the people,
especially in the rural districts, and endeavour everywhere to keep on
good terms with the clergy, at least one-third of whom are known to be
anxious for the dissemination of the Word of God though at the same time
unwilling to separate themselves from the discipline and ceremonials of
Rome. I bore this advice in mind, which indeed perfectly tallied with my
own ideas, and throughout the two thousand miles of my peregrination
during the summer of last year, I performed much if not all of what I
proposed, and am not aware that in one single instance my proceedings
were such as could possibly merit reproof. I established depots in all
the principal towns of the north of Spain, and in all gave notice to the
public of the arrival of the New Testament in a mild yet expressive
advertisement which I here exhibit, and which I beg leave to state is the
only advertisement which I ever made use of. The consequence was that
the work enjoyed a reasonable sale, and I experienced no
opposition--except in the case of Leon, a town remarkable for its
ultra-Carlism--but on the contrary much encouragement especially on the
part of the ecclesiastics. I visited Salamanca and Valladolid the chief
seats of Castilian learning, I visited Saint James of Compostella, the
temple of the great image of the Patron of Spain, and in none of these
cities was a single voice raised against the Bible Society or its Agent.
But I did not confine myself to the towns, but visited the small and
large villages, and by this means became acquainted with both citizens
and rustics; amongst the former I found little desire for sober serious
reading, but on the contrary a rage for stimulant narratives, and amongst
too many a lust for the deistical writings of the French, especially for
those of Talleyrand, which have been translated into Spanish and
published by the press of Barcelona, and for which I was frequently
pestered. I several times enquired of the book-sellers of the various
towns which I visited as to the means to be used towards introducing the
Scripture amongst the villagers; but to this question they invariably
replied that, unless the villagers came to the towns and purchased the
work, they saw no means of making it known amongst them, unless I made
friends in the villages in whose hands I could deposit copies for sale,
though in such a case the difficulty of recovering the money would be
immense. I therefore at last resolved to make an experiment, the result
of which fully corresponded with an opinion which I had for some time
formed--namely, that in the villages, sequestered and apart amongst the
mountains and in the sandy plains of Spain, I might at any time be sure
of a glorious harvest, far more rich than that which it was possible for
me to expect in towns and cities, unless I had recourse to means
unwarranted, nay forbidden, by the Book which I distributed, and which
means had been proscribed by the Society itself on my departure for
Spain. But now to proceed at once to the experiment, which I made at
different periods and in different provinces.
I twice sallied forth one morning alone and on horseback, and proceeded
to a distant village, bearing behind me a satchel of books. On my
arrival, which took place just after the _siesta_ or afternoon's sleep
had concluded, I proceeded in both instances to the market-place, where I
spread a horse-cloth on the ground, on which I deposited my books. I
then commenced crying with a loud voice: 'Peasants, peasants, I bring you
the Word of God at a cheap price. I know you have but little money, but
I bring it to you at whatever you can command, at four or three _reals_
according to your means.' I thus went on till a crowd gathered round me,
who examined the book with attention, many of them reading it aloud. But
I had not long to tarry; in both instances I disposed of my cargo almost
instantaneously, and then mounted my horse without a question having been
asked me, and returned to my temporary residence lighter than I left it.
This occurred in Castile and Galicia, near the towns of Santiago and
Valladolid.
The above are incidents which I have hitherto kept within the privacy of
my own bosom and which I have confided to none; they were but
experiments, which at that time I had no wish to repeat, nor to be
requested so to do. I was perfectly aware that such a line of conduct,
if followed before the proper time, would give offence to the clergy, not
only to the Carlist but the liberal clergy, and likewise to the
Government; and it formed no part of my plan to be on ill terms with
either. For I remembered that I was a stranger and a labourer on
sufferance in Christ's cause in a half-barbaric land, on which the light
of freedom and true religion was just beginning to dawn, and I was
unwilling by over-precipitance and for the sake of a mere temporary
triumph to forego the solid and lasting advantages which I foresaw, and
had been told that patience and prudence would assure. I resolved to use
the knowledge which I had obtained by these experiments only as a last
resource, provided any accident which it was impossible for me then to
foresee should overturn all the plans which my friends and myself had
been forming for the quiet and peaceful introduction of the Scriptures
amongst the Spaniards with the consent or at least with the connivance of
the Government and clergy, knowing well that a great part of the latter
were by no means disposed to offer any serious opposition to such a
measure, they having sense and talent enough to perceive that the old
system can no longer be upheld of which the essential part is, as is well
known, to keep the people in ignorance of the great sterling truths of
Christianity. I now come to the most distressing part of my narrative
and likewise to the most miserable of my own life.
I returned to Madrid from my long, fatiguing and most perilous journey,
in which I must be permitted to say that independent of a thousand
miraculous escapes from the factious and the banditti I had been twice
arrested as a spy, namely, once at Vigo and subsequently at Cape
Finisterre, in which latter instance I narrowly escaped with life, the
ignorant fishermen having determined upon shooting me and my guide. Upon
finding the booksellers of Madrid, with the exception of Razola, a man of
no importance, averse to undertake the sale of the New Testament I
determined upon establishing a shop of my own, a step to which I was
advised by many sincere friends of the Cause and of myself. Having
accomplished this, I advertised the work incessantly, not only in the
public prints but by placards posted in all the streets of the city; but
I wish it to be distinctly understood that the advertisement which I used
was the same quiet innocent advertisement, a copy of which you possess,
and of which I have availed myself in the provinces, an advertisement
which had never given offence nor was calculated to give offence if
squandered about the streets by millions. I make this statement in
self-justification, I having, in consequence of a letter in which I made
some observations respecting advertisements and handbills, received a
paragraph in a communication from home, in which I was checked with
having made a plentiful use of advertisements and handbills myself. It
would have been as well if my respected and revered friend the writer had
made himself acquainted with the character of my advertisements before he
made that observation. There is no harm in an advertisement, if truth,
decency and the fear of God are observed; and I believe my own will be
scarcely found deficient in any of these three requisites. It is not the
use of a serviceable instrument, but its abuse that merits reproof, and I
cannot conceive that advertising was abused by me when I informed the
people of Madrid, that the New Testament was to be purchased at a cheap
price in the _Calle del Principe_.
I had scarcely opened my establishment at Madrid when I began to hear
rumours of certain transactions at Valencia, said to be encouraged by the
British and Foreign Bible Society. As these transactions, as they were
reported, were in the highest degree absurd and improper, and as I was
convinced that the Bible Society would sanction nothing of the kind, I
placed little or no credit in them, and put them down to the account of
Jesuitical malignity. In less than a fortnight appeared in the
newspapers what I conceived to be a gross and uncalled-for attack upon
the Bible Society, appended to a pastoral of the Bishop of Valencia, in
which he forbade the sale of the Bible throughout his diocese. The
Committee are acquainted with my answer to that epistle; they are well
aware with what zeal and fervour I spoke against the spirit of Popery,
and defended the Society and their cause as far as my feeble talents
would permit. Yet I here confess that the said answer was penned, if not
in perfect ignorance of what had been transacted in Valencia, at least in
almost utter disbelief; for had it been my fortune at the time to have
been as well informed as I have subsequently been, so far from publishing
the answer in question I would at once have publicly disclaimed, as I
afterwards did, any participation or sympathy in transactions which were
not only calculated to bring the Bible cause into odium, but the Bible
Society into difficulties, into discredit, and worst of all, into
contempt. A helpless widow was insulted, her liberty of conscience
invaded, and her only son incited to rebellion against her. A lunatic
was employed as the _repartidor_ or distributor of the blessed Bible, who
having his head crammed with what he understood not, ran through the
streets of Valencia crying aloud that Christ was nigh at hand and would
appear in a short time; whilst advertisements to much the same effect
were busily circulated in which the name, the noble name, of the Bible
Society was prostituted; whilst the Bible exposed for sale in an
apartment of a public house served for little more than a decoy to the
idle and curious, who were there treated with incoherent railings against
the Church of Rome and Babylon, in a dialect which it was well for the
deliverer that only a few of the audience understood. But I fly from
these details, and will now repeat the consequences of the above
proceedings to myself; for I, I, and only I, as every respectable person
in Madrid can vouch, have paid the penalty for them all, though as
innocent as the babe who has not yet seen the light.
I had much difficulty at Madrid, principally on account of the state of
political matters which absorbed the minds of all, in bringing the New
Testament into notice. However by dint of perseverance I contrived to
direct the public curiosity towards it, indeed I was beginning to average
a sale of twenty copies daily, when the shop was suddenly closed by order
of the Government in consequence of the complaints from Valencia, myself
being supposed to be the instigator and director of the scenes in that
place already narrated. For the next four months I carried on
negotiations with the Government through the medium of Sir George
Villiers, who from my first arrival in the Peninsula, had most generously
befriended me. But in his endeavours to forward my views he found
exceeding difficulties. The clergy were by this time, both Carlist and
liberal, thoroughly incensed against me, and indeed with much apparent
reason; the former denounced me to the populace as a sorcerer and a
heretic, and the latter spoke of me as an accomplished hypocrite. I was
at last flung into prison--into the pestilential _Carcel de la Corte_,
where my faithful servant Francisco caught the gaol-fever, of which he
subsequently died. But in this instance my enemies committed a very
imprudent act, an act which had very nearly produced the result for which
I had been so long unsuccessfully negotiating. My protector, Sir George
Villiers, informed the Spanish Prime Minister, Ofalia, that unless full
satisfaction was offered me, he should deem it his duty to cease any
further transactions with the Spanish Government, and to order all the
British land and sea-forces, co-operating with those of the Queen to
terminate the rebellion, to desist from further operations.
I was about to obtain all I wished, when at the critical moment the news
of the scenes at Malaga arrived at Madrid, and Sir George had little more
to say than that Satan seemed to mingle in this game. Nevertheless I
left prison, with the understanding that the Government would connive at
the circulation of the Scriptures in a quiet manner, not calculated to
produce disturbances nor to give scandal to the clergy.
But speedily followed the affair of the sectarian tracts of Carthagena,
which tracts were sworn to as having been left there by agents of the
Bible Society; and I instantly knew that I had nothing more to expect
from the Government. But some time previous I had formed an unalterable
resolution that, come what might, I would no longer bear the odium of
actions, which in whatever motive they originated had already subjected
me to unheard-of persecution, loathsome imprisonment, loss of friends,
and to the grief of seeing prudent and long-brooded plans baffled and
brought to nought, and the Society to which I belonged subjected to
opprobrium as I believed undeserved; and I therefore published in the
journals of Madrid an advertisement, in which I disowned, in my own name
and that of the Society, any sympathy with the actor or actors in those
transactions, which had given so much cause of offence to the
authorities, civil and ecclesiastic, of Spain.
My principal reason for taking this step originated from my having become
personally acquainted with the ex-priest Pascual Marin, who arrived at
Madrid the very day in which I was committed to prison. His narrative
served to confirm all the rumours which I had previously heard. The
Committee are fully aware with what unwillingness I formed the
acquaintance of that man, who was sent up to me in order that I might
provide for him, without my consent being obtained or even demanded; but
I now rejoice in the circumstance, without which I might still have been
playing the odious, disgraceful, and heart-breaking part which I had
supported so long. But by the decided step which I now took, the burden
of obloquy fell at once from my shoulders, as the bundle of sin from the
back of Christian, and rolling into a deep pit was seen no more.
That advertisement gave infinite satisfaction to the liberal clergy. I
was complimented for it by the Primate of Spain, who said I had redeemed
my credit and that of the Society; and it is with some feeling of pride
that I state that it choked and prevented the publication of a series of
terrible essays against the Bible Society, which were intended for the
official Gazette, and which were written by the Licentiate Albert Lister,
the editor of that journal, the friend of Blanco White, and the most
talented man in Spain. These essays still exist in the editorial drawer,
and were communicated to me by the head manager of the royal printing
office, my respected friend and countryman Mr. Charles Wood, whose
evidence in this matter and in many others I can command at pleasure. In
lieu of which essays came out a mild and conciliatory article by the same
writer, which, taking into consideration the country in which it was
written and its peculiar circumstances, was an encouragement to the Bible
Society to proceed, although with secrecy and caution. Yet this article,
sadly misunderstood in England, gave rise to communications from home
highly mortifying to myself and ruinous to the Bible cause.
In the meantime my depots had been seized in various parts of Spain,
depots the greatest part of which I had established with immense
difficulty and peril, some of them being in the remote and almost
inaccessible province of Galicia, at the distance of almost four hundred
miles from Madrid. I now deemed that the time was at hand to avail
myself of my resource, and to sell at all risks the Testament amongst the
peasantry of Spain, by whom I knew that it would be received with
transport and with gratitude. I determined to commence with the Sagra of
Toledo, where resided an honest labourer of my acquaintance; my foot was
in the stirrup when I received a letter from home, which I can only
consider as having originated with the Enemy of mankind for the purpose
of perplexing my already harassed and agitated mind. In this letter I
was told, amongst other matter which I need not repeat, to prepare to
quit Spain. But by the shaft I knew the quiver from which it came, and,
merely exclaiming, 'Satan, I defy thee,' I hurried to Sagra, and disposed
of amongst the peasantry in one fortnight four hundred copies of the New
Testament. But it is hard to wrestle with the great Enemy; another shaft
arrived in the shape of a letter, which compelled me to return to Madrid,
whilst the cause of God was beckoning me to Aranjuez and La Mancha, to
which places I indeed hurried as soon as I had arranged matters at
Madrid.
Without losing time or being dispirited by the events of the last
journey, I repaired to Old Castile; here my success was almost
miraculous, nine hundred copies of the Holy Book being sold in less than
three weeks, but not in peace and tranquillity, as the province became
suddenly a scene of horrors which I shall not attempt to describe. It
was not the war of men, or even of cannibals, which I witnessed; it
seemed a contest of fiends from the infernal pit. But God guided me safe
and unharmed through this 'valley of the shadow,' and permitted me to
regain Madrid; where, upon finding myself formally recalled, I deposited
the Society's property in as safe a place as I could find, and was about
to return home when a fever which had been long lurking in my blood at
last prostrated me, confining me to my bed for many days, at the
expiration of which, though very unfit for travel, I departed for
England, where at last by God's will I am arrived in safety.
Before concluding, I have a communication to make, the importance of
which few, I believe, will be tempted to deny.
I have at various times stated that the Bible Cause had many and powerful
friends in Spain, though my statements up to the present moment seem to
have been hailed with little attention. I remember in one particular
letter recommending prudence, patience, and co-operation with the liberal
clergy, who were sincerely disposed to help us on, provided that by
intemperateness of conduct we gave them no reasonable ground for offence.
There is now a society formed at Madrid, determined upon making the Word
of God, without note or comment, known amongst the children of Spain.
The laws concerning the publishing the Scripture have been diligently and
minutely examined, and it has been discovered that by none of the laws of
Spain, ancient or modern, whether made by Cortes or by kings, is the
publication of the Scripture, in the whole or in parts, with or without
comment, forbidden--but merely and solely by particular Bulls of various
Bishops of Rome, which Bulls though respected by many of the Spaniards
form no part of the law of Spain. Provided resistance be offered to the
undertaking either by the Government or any portion of the ecclesiastics,
it has been determined to bring the matter before the Cortes, from whom a
favourable decision may be expected with certainty. An individual has
been selected as the ostensible manager of this great and glorious
undertaking, this individual is Mr. C. Wood, whom I have already had
occasion to mention, though it is in my power to state that but for the
manner in which the name of the Bible Society has on various occasions
been brought before the public, and almost invariably to its
disadvantage, myself its well-known Agent, would have been the person
selected. If it be here asked who are the respectable and influential
persons who are at the head of this undertaking and who patronise it, I
reply the Archbishop of Toledo, the Primate of Spain, and the Bishops of
Vich and Jaen.